1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power module capable of reducing an inrush current generated when an idle mode is switched to a normal node, and a distributed power supply apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a variety of electronic devices that meet diverse consumer demands have been introduced, and electronic devices may employ a power supply apparatus supplying operating power to execute pertinent functions.
A power supply apparatus may employ a switched mode power supply (SMPS) due to advantages of power conversion efficiency, compactness, and the like.
Types of power supply apparatuses may include a distributed power supply apparatus having a plurality of power modules to supply high capacity power to an electronic device requiring high capacity power, such as a server.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a general distributed power supply apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, a general distributed power supply apparatus 10 may include first to Nth power modules 11, 12, . . . , 1N (N is a natural number of 1 or more) connected in parallel, and here, the first power module 11 may include an input filter 11a, a power factor correction stage 11b, and a DC/DC conversion stage 11c. 
The distributed power supply apparatus may be broken down, and in this case, modules may be replaced. Here, a hot swap technique of removing only a failed power module and inserting a new power module, without having to cut the entire power supply, may be used due to ease of maintenance, repairs, and upgrades.
Meanwhile, the foregoing distributed power supply apparatus 10 combines outputs of the first to Nth power modules 11, 12, . . . , 1N and transfers the same to a load, and here, as disclosed in the related art document, power modules continuously operate to increase power consumption, so in order to solve this problem, at least a portion of power modules are operated in an idle mode in the case of no-load or light-load and when loads are increased, the power modules may be operated in a normal mode. In this case, however, when the power modules are switched from the idle mode to the normal mode, an inrush current is generated to apply excessive voltage stress to an element used for power conversion.